Nearly half of the US was using a VPN as of early last year. Who knows, it could be more by now. What are you waiting for? A virtual private network (VPN) is a service that routes all your incoming and outgoing internet traffic through a middleman server to make it harder for cross-site trackers, data thieves, snoops, and nosy websites to track where you go online.As sophisticated as these annoyances (some are downright threats) have become in recent years, I consider a good VPN almost mandatory these days. It’s tempting to throw in the towel on online privacy, but it doesn’t have to be hard or expensive to fend off the bastards that try to snoop on you. You wouldn’t stand for somebody poking through your window blinds at home, would you? Don’t stand for it online, either. NordVPN remains my number one recommendation for somebody when they ask which VPN they should use. It’s been my top recommendation for, oh man, at least five years. Here’s why.For a more thorough explanation of how a VPN works, along with a couple more worthy recommendations, check out my guide to the Best VPNs.the nordvpn app’s home screen – credit: matt jancerWhat you’ve gotta know about nordvpnThere’s a reason I crowned it the Best Overall VPN in my guide to the Best VPNs. NordVPN is blazing fast, as far as all the VPNs I’ve tested over the past 10 or so years. And it’s easy to use. But more than that it’s highly trustworthy. That counts for a lot. It counts for damn near everything when you’re talking about a product designed to protect your privacy and anonymity online.(opens in a new window)NordVPNNordVPN(opens in a new window)Available at NordVPNBuy Now(opens in a new window)The good and the badProsFastest of the worthwhile, trustworthy VPNs7,400+ servers in 118 countriesVerified policy of not recording user activityConsNo free versionhow i testedThe beauty about testing a VPN is that the most normal way to test it is simply to connect to its servers and use the computer as usual. I hopped around from server to server, trying them out in a whole bunch of cities and countries around the world a lot more than a normal user would. I had to check them out and make sure I wasn’t just getting lucky with one or two good servers, after all.But other than that I downloaded and uploaded large files, streamed 4K video (including live sports), and generally used my computer as normal, logging into VICE’s CMS to publish stories and surfing the internet to see how NordVPN held up under the kind of normal uses most people will experience.the kill switch option in nordvpn’s settings that cuts your internet off if your vpn server’s connection drops – credit: matt jancerWhat it’s actually like to use nordvpnA couple of years ago NordVPN had a slightly annoying habit of dropping its connection more frequently than I’d like. I’m happy to say that they’ve seemed to have solved that problem, as it’s comparatively rare that a NordVPN connection drops on me nowadays. It happens no more often than other top VPNs, such as Proton VPN and Mullvad VPN.All of the things I liked about NordVPN years ago have stayed in place. There’s no enshittification (the calculated worsening of a digital product over time) to report here. NordVPN just keeps adding more servers as time goes on while maintaining the openness, transparency, speed, and trust that made it great to begin with.part of the server selection screen of nordvpn – credit: matt jancerNordVPN now offers more than 7,400 servers in 224 cities across 118 countries, and as a subscriber you can choose any of them. There are no restrictions. If you’re in Toronto and want to make it appear to web traffic that you’re in Cairo, then you can connect through a Cairo server. Or if you’re in Austin, Texas and want to “be,” digitally at least, in London, you’ve got a few London servers to choose from.NordVPN Is Safe and TrustworthyNordVPN, by contrast, is entirely transparent about its no-logs policy. They can’t be forced by a government or law enforcement into giving up records on its users’ activity because it doesn’t log or keep information on its users’ activity. There’s nothing to give.I don’t say such a thing lightly. Most VPNs are too sketchy for me to use myself, beyond testing them. And I certainly wouldn’t recommend them to you. I’ve used ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access extensively over the years, and I don’t like ’em. Long ago they were acquired by a company, Kape Technologies, that I deeply mistrust for its past involvement as an adware company.Although NordVPN’s parent company, Nord Security, is based in The Netherlands, NordVPN itself is headquartered in Panama. That means it’s outside of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes international security alliances. When a country is a member of one of these alliances, they can ask another member country to provide records on one of their citizen’s online activity, even if they’re not physically in their home country. It’s a scary overreach and invasion into privacy.you can pause nordvpn’s connection to access sites that can detect and block vpn users – Credit: matt jancerBeing based in Panama puts NordVPN outside of all of these alliances. Even though it keeps no logs to hand over, it’s still nice to know that it’s not in a country with any kind of agreement that’d attempt to provide pressure into government-sanctioned snooping.We can know that NordVPN isn’t just lying about its no-logs policy and its location because it voluntarily opens its infrastructure to audits made by independent, third-parties who peek under the hood of NordVPN to verify that it’s built in a way that doesn’t keep logs and doesn’t have backdoors that’d allow anyone—government, cyber criminal, website, or Nord itself—to snoop on a user’s connection. NordVPN then releases the results to the public to show that NordVPN isn’t hiding any dirty tricks up its sleeve.NordVPN Has Been Wicked Fast for MeOf all the worthwhile VPNs—there aren’t many—NordVPN has reliably been the quickest for me. I’ve connected to VPN servers all over the world in various countries to check NordVPN’s speeds, and I’ve used them from a variety of locations around the world, from North American to Europe to Africa, and the vast majority of servers were as quick and slick as microwaved butter.Any VPN connection will introduce a measure of slowdown. All your incoming and outgoing traffic has to be routing through an extra server. But NordVPN’s servers made such slowdown unnoticeable. I’d see evidence of it when I ran a speed test, but when I was streaming 4K video, downloading very large files, or uploading huge file backups I didn’t notice any slowdown at all. Neither did my browser feel any slower loading webpages. That’s a big win for NordVPN.other vpns worth your money(opens in a new window)ProtonProton VPN(opens in a new window)Available at ProtonBuy Now(opens in a new window)Although NordVPN has offered consistently faster servers than Proton VPN (which aren’t slow by any means), Proton offers the most comprehensive suite of privacy-focused apps. Nothing—not NordVPN, nor anybody—can touch Proton when it comes to creating a bundle of a VPN, password manager, private email, and private cloud service. It’s a trustworthy service with a no-logs policy and which regularly releases the results of their independent, third-party audits, just like NordVPN.Check out my review of Proton VPN.(opens in a new window)MullvadMullvad VPN(opens in a new window)Available at MullvadBuy Now(opens in a new window)Yes, Mullvad VPN has an adorable mascot. He’s a mole, and it’s a nod toward how VPNs let you travel beneath notice on the internet. I’ve tested Mullvad VPN, and it gets an enthusiastic pass for me. Like any VPN worth your time, it has a no-logs policy and regular independent audits, which it releases publicly. Mullvad VPN lets you set up an account without handing over an email address, and you can pay in cryptocurrency if you like, a nice touch that goes even further toward anonymity than most VPNs.See a complete list of the Best VPNs here.why a no-logs policy is importantHaving a no-logs policy means that a VPN doesn’t track your activity when you’re connected to its servers. Which websites you visit, what search terms you punch into the search bar, the information you send and receive from various websites—all of it is a mystery to the VPN company. It doesn’t keep records of what you’ve done or where you’ve been online.This is important because, even if a government or law enforcement agency were to try to force NordVPN into giving up information on you, NordVPN couldn’t. There’d be no information on your internet activity to force out of NordVPN, because it doesn’t store it. Those living in repressive countries can breathe easier knowing that the authorities can’t force NordVPN to give up information on you that could get you persecuted for mouthing off about a politician you don’t like or exercising any other non-violent, basic human right.Is using a VPN legal?Depends on where you are. Generally in the West, yes, it’s legal to use a VPN. Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the U.K., and the European Union have no restrictions on private citizens using a VPN, as long as you’re not using it to do anything illegal. And companies, such as Netflix, will get awfully pissed off and may end your subscription and access if they find you’ve been using a VPN to spoof your location to, say, see in-market sports games live without the right subscription or access U.K.-only shows on the BBC from the U.S.Many countries ban VPNs, though, including Iran, Russia, and China. My advice to you is to check whether your country bans them. It should be simple. Just type your country’s name and “VPNs banned?” into a search bar. And if it turns out they are banned in your country, well, I’m not going to tell you what to do or not do. That’s a risk calculation you’ll have to make for yourself. The idealist in me believes that people have a fundamental right to access information without interference. Just sayin’.the bottom lineNordVPN is a stellar option if you’re shopping for a VPN. And it’s not even expensive for what you get. Unlike TVs and computers, the better VPNs don’t really cost any more per month than the worse-performing VPNs and the sketchball VPNs.Don’t forget to check out our guide to the Best VPNs if you’re still undecided about NordVPN. I’ve tested a lot of VPNs, and yet I don’t recommend that many at all. But unlike, say, a video game or movie streaming app, you only need one VPN, and so you may as well hold out and plunk down your money on the best VPN. Don’t play second place with your privacy.(opens in a new window)NordVPNNordVPN(opens in a new window)Available at NordVPNBuy Now(opens in a new window)The post NordVPN is the Best VPN (for Thwarting Nosy Cybervillains) appeared first on VICE.